Why Ferris Bueller’s End Credits Scene Seems Out Of Order

The end credits scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, in which Principal Rooney has to ride the school bus, seems to take place at the wrong point in the movie chronologically. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is one of the most timeless and iconic teen comedies from writer-director John Hughes’ career. It stars Matthew Broderick as the titular teenager, who skips school for a day so he can go on wild adventures across Chicago with his girlfriend Sloane and his best friend Cameron. Throughout the day, the downtrodden Principal Rooney desperately tries to confirm his suspicion that Ferris is faking his illness to get a day off school.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is full of hilarious moments, like Cameron impersonating an incensed father on the phone to Principal Rooney and Ferris impersonating Abe Froman, “the sausage king of Chicago,” to get a table at a fancy restaurant. The scene that plays during the closing credits, in which a beaten and bloodied Principal Rooney gets on the school bus and awkwardly sits amongst his students, is a really funny one. But it seems out of place, time-wise. This question has been raised so much since the movie first came out that Hughes himself provided an answer to this mystery in his director’s commentary on the DVD release.

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The Ferris Bueller Bus Scene Originally Took Place Earlier

The end credits scene of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off doesn’t make sense chronologically, because it seems to have a school bus driving kids home at around 6pm, which is way too late. In Hughes’ original screenplay – and in the novelization of the movie – the bus scene with Principal Rooney takes place much earlier in the story. It’s placed between the scene in which Ferris, Cameron, and Sloane see the numerical changes to the odometer and the scene in which the trio hangs out at the pool and tries to think of a plan.

This isn’t the only issue with the timing of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’s story. There’s no way that Ferris, Cameron, and Sloane could visit the Art Institute of Chicago for a look around, take in a Chicago Cubs baseball game, dine at a fancy restaurant, dance at the Von Steuben Day Parade, and get back home to the suburbs, all within the space of school hours. But the issue of the late school bus was resolved by Hughes himself in the director’s commentary that he recorded for the movie’s DVD release.

John Hughes Explained Why The Bus Scene Takes Place When It Does

In his director’s commentary on the DVD, Hughes explained that Principal Rooney’s school bus scene originally came earlier in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. In the early cuts of the film, it took its rightful place between the odometer scene and the pool scene. However, Hughes decided he wanted to have a scene playing over the end credits. The slow pacing and visual, unspoken comedic interactions of the school bus scene made it a perfect candidate to play alongside the credits. In this commentary, Hughes also calls it “the late bus,” so it’s not a backtrack; the scene does officially take place in the evening.